Chapter I

SUN. _If the Sun rise red and firey._ } Wind and Rain.

THE Reason of this Appearance is, because the Sun shines through a large Mass of Vapours, which occasions that red Colour that has been always esteemed a Sign of Rain, especially if the Face of the Sun appear bigger than it ought, for then in a few Hours the Clouds will grow black, and be condensed into Rain, sudden and sharp, if in the Summer, but settled and moderate if in Winter.

THE old _English_ Rule published in our first Almanacks agrees exactly with our Author's Observation.

If red the Sun begins his Race,
Be sure that Rain will fall apace.

IF the Reader would see this elegantly described, the Master of Poets hath it thus.[_a_]

Above the Rest, the Sun, who never lies,
Foretels the Change of Weather in the Skies;
For if he rise unwilling to his Race,
Clouds on his Brow, and Spots upon his Face,
Or if thro' Mists he shoots his sullen Beams,
Frugal of light, in loose and straggling Streams,
Suspect a drizzling Day and southern Rain,
Fatal to Fruits and Flocks, and promis'd Grain.

[Footnote _a_:

Sol quoque & exoriens, & cum se condit in undas,
_Signa_ dabit: _Solem_ certissima signa sequuntur,
Et quæ Mane refert, & quæ surgentibus _Astris_,
Ille ubi nascentem _maculis_ variaverit Ortum
Concavus in Nubem, medioque refugerit Orbe;
Suspecti tibi sint _Imbres_. Namque urget ab alto
Arboribusque satisque Notus Pecorique sinister.

Virgil. Georgic. lib. i. v. 438.]